BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an American adult animated television comedy created by animator Bloo J, and developed by Matthew Chaudhary for Comedy Central. The series centers on six friends: Bloo, Jenny Wakeman, Mac, Frankie Foster, Eduardo, and Wilt, who own a place called Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a home with fictional characters including The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Bob and Larry and many more. The show is set in the fictional town of Toonville and parodies American culture and society. Like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, and Rick and Morty, BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was designed for mature audiences and features violence, adult humor, profanity, running gags, and pop culture references. The series was pitched to Comedy Central in 1997 as part of their then-recently created animated series South Park. The company had greenlit the series for production in 1998 after the pilot was completed for Comedy Central. Bloo J pitched a seven-minute pilot to Comedy Central in 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. The series was originally supposed to air in 1998 on MTV but the show was held back until 2 years later due to behind-the-scenes issues with Comedy Central, as well as delays. Episodes are produced at Winking Pooh Entertainment, Bloo J's production company. Since its debut on August 11, 2000, 253 episodes of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends have been broadcast. Its twentieth season began on September 25, 2019. BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends received critical acclaim and won 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 Annie Awards, and 5 Teen Choice Awards. It has gained mass popularity among teenagers and adults, and is one of the longest running animated television series. It has since been named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the best adult animated shows and by IGN in their list of best animated series at number 85. BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has also received criticism, including unfavorable comparisons to South Park, Family Guy, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 8, 2005, and grossed over $288 million. In 2013, TV Guide ranked BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''the thirteenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time. Paramount has also published several ''BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''books and music CDs, as well as branded items such as toys, clothing, and garden seeds for vegetables and flowers. Premise Characters ''Main article: List of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends characters BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is an animated comedy that follows the adventures of six friends who reside in the town of Toonville and own a large house for cartoon characters and imaginary friends. Episodes usually feature the central trio of Bloo, Jenny, and Mac, though occasional storylines center on the other main characters. * [[Bloo|'Bloo']] (voiced by Keith Ferguson) – Mac's imaginary friend. He spends much of his time with his friends and trying to impress love interest and part-time girlfriend Jenny Wakeman. He also likes to think of good schemes, along with the rest of his friends. Out of all the characters, Bloo saw the most appearances and character development throughout the series. Bloo's love for Jenny is a recurring theme throughout the series. * [[Jenny Wakeman|'Jenny Wakeman']] (voiced by Janice Kawaye), a highly sophisticated state-of-the-art sentient gynoid automaton robot girl who is Bloo's girlfriend. Although Bloo thinks the world of her, she apparently likes Bloo a lot, but has thought of him as a "salvageable male". She and Bloo have broken up many times, but they always seem to make up sooner or later. * [[Mac (BlooJ's Foster;s Home for Imaginary Friends)|'Mac']] (voiced by Sean Marquette) – A bright, and imaginative eight-year-old boy who is Bloo's creator and best friend. The two often spend a lot of their time hanging out together. His parents are divorced and his behavior wavers between kindness and aggravation. He also likes to play video games and be a master of it. * [[Frankie Foster|'Frankie Foster']] (voiced by Grey DeLisle) – Madame Foster's redheaded granddaughter, addressed as "Miss Frances" by Mr. Herriman. She is boy-crazy and when she has grown attracted to someone, she will fawn over him endlessly. She is also very good at cooking and cleaning. She is Mac's girlfriend. According to her driver's license, she was born on July 25, 1984. * [[Eduardo (BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)|'Eduardo']] (voiced by Tom Kenny) – A Latin American monster created by a young girl, Nina Valerosa, to protect her in a dangerous neighborhood. * [[Wilt (BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)|'Wilt']] (voiced by Phil LaMarr) – A very tall, friendly and incredibly nice red-colored friend with only a right arm and a crooked left eye-stalk. His overtly passive demeanor is often taken advantage of by the other imaginary friends. * [[Coco (BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)|'Coco']] (voiced by Candi Milo) – A chicken-like bird with palm tree-like hair who can only say or write her name. A talent unique to her is her ability to lay colorful, plastic eggs containing a plethora of objects.. Other characters usually understand her when she speaks. * [[Mr. Herriman|'Mr. Herriman']] (voiced by Tom Kane) – A gray and white elderly anthropomorphic lop ear rabbit friend imagined by Madame Foster who speaks with a British accent. * [[Madame Foster|'Madame Foster']] (voiced by Candi Milo) – The caring founder of Foster's and grandmother of Frankie. She is the creator of Mr. Herriman. Setting The primary setting of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ''is Toonville. ''More coming soon! Development BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was created by Bloo J for Comedy Central. So while working on it during production on Rocko's Modern Life, he decided to lower the number of imaginary friends. He pitched the idea to Nickelodeon, however they turned it down, telling him that it looked similar to Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, which contained too adult humor, and it would work better as an adult cartoon. In February 1997, he pitched the idea to Comedy Central, consisting of an 11-minute animation of a few of the main characters fighting over who gets to the bathroom first and Mr. Herriman pointing a knife at them at the end of the animation, as he orders them to form a line. Comedy Central accepted it and gave the greenlight to the show 2 months later. The series was originally supposed to air in 1998 on MTV but the show was held back until 2000 due to behind-the-scenes issues with Comedy Central, as well as delays. Episodes Main article: List of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episodes Production Executive producers Bloo J has served as an executive producer during the show's entire history. The first executive producers were TBA. BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has had many executive producers in its history, including TBA. Writing The first team of writers assembled for the show consisted of TBA. The writing process of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends generally starts with 14 writers that take turns writing the scripts; when a script is finished it is given to the rest of the writers to read. These scripts generally include cutaway gags. Various gags are pitched to MacFarlane and the rest of the staff, and those deemed funniest are included in the episode. Bloo J has explained that normally it takes 10 months to produce an episode because the show uses hand-drawn animation. The show rarely comments on current events for this reason. The show's initial writers had never written for an animated show; and most came from live-action sitcoms. Credited with 19 episodes, Steve Callaghan is the most prolific writer on the BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends staff. Many of the writers that have left the show have gone on to create or produce other successful series. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan co-wrote 13 episodes for the NBC sitcom Scrubs during their eight-year run on the show, while also serving as co-producers and working their way up to executive producers. Early history BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends officially premiered on August 11, 2000 at 8 pm, with a 90-minute pilot film "An X-Treme Kick-Off". The show debuted to 22 million viewers, and immediately generated controversy regarding its adult content. The show launched its regular episodes in a new time slot, at 9 pm, on August 18, 2000 with the episode "Store Wars". BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was pitted against NBC's Frasier, and the series' ratings declined sharply. The show returned on August 25, 2001, at 8:30 pm, where it was constantly beaten in the ratings by ABC's hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, coming in at #114 in the Nielsen ratings with 6.32 million households tuning in. The show returned November 8, 2001, once again in a tough time slot: Thursday nights at 8:00 pm; this slot brought it into competition with Survivor and Friends. During its second and third seasons, Comedy Central frequently moved the show around to different days and time slots with little or no notice and, consequently, the show's ratings suffered. Voice cast Main article: List of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends cast members and List of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends guest stars Coming soon! Hallmarks Coming soon! Reception and legacy Critical reception BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends received critical acclaim from critics. The show was praised for its writing, humor, animation, voice acting, and faithfulness to the original series. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media praised the show's voice cast and thematic messages, writing that "Adults and teenagers will come back to BlooJ’s Fosters Home For Imagnary Freends for the laughs, but they'll return for the ensemble cast and the surprisingly heartwarming themes that dominate every story." Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club gave the show a A -, noting that "the characters are defined by their traits, but never judged for them.". The success of the show led to a truckload of merchandise. Awards and nominations Main article: List of awards and nominations received by BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary FriendsBlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends won 20 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 Annie Awards, and 5 Teen Choice Awards. Titles in different countries European Countries * France – La famille d'accueil de BlooJ pour des amis imaginaires * Germany – BlooJs Pflegeheim für imaginäre Freunde * Hungary – A BlooJ Foster otthona képzeletbeli barátok számára * Italy – La casa di BlooJ's Foster per amici immaginari * Poland - BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends * Romania – Căminul lui BlooJ pentru prietenii imaginari * Russia – Дом Фостера BlooJ для воображаемых друзей * Sweden – BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Asian Countries * China - BlooJ的Foster的虚构朋友之家 * South Korea – 상상의 친구들을위한 BlooJ의 포스터 Spanish-speaking countries * Latin America - BlooJ scriptor Domus enim Foster amici animo concepta * Spain - La casa de acogida de BlooJ para amigos imaginariosCategory:EvanRocks Wiki Criticism and controversy Main article: Criticism of BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Coming soon! Related media Feature-length films A feature-length film, The BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Movie, was released in theaters on July 8, 2005. When Bendy creates clones of Mac and Bloo, who abuses and wears out Wilt, Edwardo, and Coco causing them to quit their jobs at Foster's When Jenny has been kidnapped once again and taken to a secret place that nobody knows about, things turn upside-down. Bloo and his group journeys to the terrifying place to rescue their friend, get Wilt, Edwardo, and Coco's jobs back and meeting many frightening obstacles along the way They're not helped by the fact that someone from their past wants them dead and has recruited the people they annoyed to help him get rid of them as back at Toonvile Bendy took it over and the gang have to battle the mysterious villain named Demented Chaos. On March 28, 2019, Bloo J announced on his Twitter page that Paramount is developing a sequel with an unknown release date. Stage production BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Live is a series of stage shows based on the VeggieTales videos. The first stage series was made in 2002. Six versions of the shows have been staged. The shows have toured across the U.S. and at theme parks including Dollywood and Silver Dollar City. Video games * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Video Game! (October 24, 2002) (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Fighters ''(October 21, 2003) (Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo GameCube) * ''BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Taxi Rage ''(July 6, 2004) (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Windows) * ''BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Party Craze (August 23, 2005) (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders (November 12, 2007) (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Uncensored (November 10, 2009) (iOS) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Time Warped (May 25, 2010) (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Back to the Multiverse ''(November 20, 2012) (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360) * ''BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Stick of Truth ''(March 4, 2014) (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) * ''BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Quest for Stuff (April 10, 2014) (iOS) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Time Travel Madness (March 31, 2015) (PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Another Freakin' Mobile Game (April 25, 2017) (iOS) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Fractured but Whole (October 20, 2017) (Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) * BlooJ's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Phone Destroyer (November 9, 2017) (iOS) Merchandise On February 10, 2011, Paramount announced several new product promotions, including partnerships with Burger King (kids meal promotions), American Puzzle Company (wooden puzzles and trains), CTI Industries (mylar and latex balloons), Tabbies (index tabs, stickers, temporary tattoos and wall clings), Victory Designs (children's guitars), and Zoobies (plush pillows and blankets).